Move to March may hurt Open

A black hole could open in the sporting calendar if plans to move the Australian Open come to fruition.

Sofa-bound fans looking for their television fix after Christmas may have to make do with the build-up to the Super Bowl and a reduced diet of European soccer in January if the first grand slam tournament of the season is moved to March.

While most top sportspeople are recharging their batteries over the new year and many soccer leagues are on their winter break, the tennis caravan is moving around Australia and New Zealand preparing for the Open in late January.

As The Age reported this week, organisers of the women's tour said they were happy for the Open to shift to March, but said the Melbourne organisers should make the final decision.

The rationale behind a shift of dates is solid - the season needs to be shorter to cut the number of injuries and keep the top players fresh and present at the big tournaments.

France's top male and female players - Sebastien Grosjean and Amelie Mauresmo - pulled out of the Open quarter-finals on Tuesday with injury. The women's draw has already been robbed of former No. 1 Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati, while Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters nearly missed the tournament with injury.

Giving top players two months and more away from the court would be no bad thing.

There would be losers, however, and chief among them could be the Open itself and Australian satellite tournaments.

Currently the Australian tournament season coincides with the school holidays and does not clash with major winter sports such as rugby league, rugby union and Australian football.

A move to March would change this and would also require a complete restructuring of the tennis calendar before the French Open in May-June.

Two of the richest American tournaments take place in March - Scottsdale and Indian Wells - both of which are played on hard surfaces not unlike the surface at the Australian Open.

Whether the American organisers would be prepared to move is open to question and there are few Australian tournaments that could rival their pulling power.

In the tennis pecking order, the Australian Open is ranked fourth of the four grand slams.

The lure of good weather and a warm Australian welcome guarantees a top entry, yet it was not that long ago that top overseas players bypassed it and organisers were warned it could lose its grand slam status. A move to March could remove the uniqueness of the event with untold consequences.